the highlight of the morning, right? highlight of the show, what have we learned today? >> i learned from professor chuck todd that this whole sequester thing is going to get done by march 27th. >> do you believe him? >> i believe everything he says. >> i do too, actually. >> i learned the public doesn't care anymore, which is scary, but i also learned that i want to run right out and see "escape to planet earth" this weekend. >> in 3-d. >> he's good story. >> great story. >> i learned that i'm going to utilize a hatchet driving work, watch out for cause. here's the story, if it's way too early right now, what time is it? >> you know, mr. barnicle, i believe that would be time for "morning joe," but right now it's time for "the daily rundown" with the one and only chuck todd. >> all right. he did it. he did it. >> repetition, is it the mother

as spending cuts loom? president obama looking for congress to find a deal today. he's talking to tv stations across the country. but does casa even care about these cuts. find out why the market keeps roaring without any sign of any hand ringing this time around. and virginia's 2013 fight between the clintons, the tea party for governor is shockingly close. new numbers show it's even more interesting if a major republican decides to make it an independent three-way race. it's going to be a big deal for 2013 and 2016. don't ignore this. >> good morning from the great state of indiana. >> it's wednesday, february 20th of 2013. >> and this is "the daily rundown." now here's chuck todd. >> thank you, hoosiers. a day after a campaign style

event with first responders, the president intensifies his public push to avert the automatic budget cuts that come next friday. he's doing interviews today with eight local tv anchors from around the country. charleston to wichita, cloak city, honolulu. arguing that investment is needed to grow the economy. those are big military towns. he wants to talk about infrastructure in what he talks about in the state of the union address. note that most of these markets are about military presence, so he wants potential questions about furloughs. white house is calling it a fix it first policy. the president will also revise his call for a private partnership to attract financing. third part of the plan calls for

cutting red tape to get permits. >> if we upgrade our infrastructure, that'll bring even more jobs, and that's the attitude of a lot of companies all around the world. and i know you want these job-creating projects in your districts. i've seen those ribbon cuttings. all of this is designed to turn up the pressure on republicans by pushing budget consequences into share backyards. >> border patrol agents will see their hours reduced. fbi agents will be furloughed. federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go. air traffic controllers and airport security will see cutbacks. they will add hundreds of thousands of americans to the unemployment rolls. people will lose their jobs. >> yesterday the president tried to publicly shame republicans into a compromise. >> republicans in congress face a simple choice.

are they willing to compromise, to protect vital investments in education and healthcare and national security and all the jobs that depend on them or would they rather put hundreds of thousands of jobs and our economy at risk just to protect a few loopholes that benefit only the welliest americans and biggest corporations. >> we know we're still knee deep in the blame jane. house speaker john boehner writes from the president is raging against a crisis he created and mr. president, we agree that your sequester is bad policy. white house senior adviser dan pfeiffer fired back in an early morning blog post. the fact is the president has a detailed spending plan. the speaker has not named one loophole he is willing to close. boehner boasted in the past that the sequester was adopted leverage kbiemt cuts.

and the gop is expected to -- will the white house strategy actually work this time and is the public still listening? president obama might have a chicken little problem. fifth fiscal standoff since republicans took over in 2011. so would it be a surprise that they look at what's all of these events now and maybe they agree more with the president's way of thinking. maybe they believe house republicans are manufacturing this more than the white house is. but they sit there and they say, washington, they'll figure it out. they've done it each time. and then even when the sequester kicks in, they'll figure it out. it's the danger here on trying to use the public bully pulpit one more time on this crisis. moving on, politics behind achieving immigration reform have never been more promising than right now. still the more things change,

the more they stay the same. the town halls that senator mccain held yesterday in feeng look like those town hauls five years ago. mccain opened by joking that he was prepared for anything that the crowd decided to throw at him. >> i'm so happy to be back with you. it's not fun trying to do the lord's work in the city of satan. i'd like to respond to any questions or comments or insults that you may have. >> mccain didn't have to waited too long. as he attempted to defend his immigration plan, taking question after angry question. >> why didn't the army go down there and stop them? because the only thing that stops them, i'm afraid to say, and it's too damn bad, but it's a gun. >> the border is 2,000 miles long, sir. i don't know how many troops and

army people you think would have been required. i don't know how many you think would be required but i'll give you expert information that shows you that probably maybe you're talking about 2 million soldiers. >> cut off their welfare, their stuff and they'll go back. >> the majority of them are not on welfare. >> there are people who have been here illegally for 50 years or 40 years. am i then telling them to become guest workers? no, you can't do that. why didn't you do that? because we're a judeo-christian principled nation. >> you said build a dang fence. where's the fence? >> in case you missed it, i showed you. >> that's not a fence. >> that's not a fence? it's a banana. we've put up a banana with -- you've had enough time. you've had enough time, pal. you've had enough time. >> so there is a real issue in the base there for republicans. on a more promising net note for

immigration reform supporters, we got a reminder from marco rubio was much ado about nothing. rubio's still traveling in the middle east after his office put out a page-long rebuttal how their plan is different. president obama called rubio along with licensed graham, and rubio's office responded with a very upbeat statement saying the senator says he feels good about the ongoing negotiations in the senate. hoping it will pass with strong bipartisan support. finally while the white house has taken a backseat in the immigration debate to let congress work its will, you're reminded at why presidential leadership matters in politics. every two or three days there's a gun event being pushed by the white house. yesterday it was vice president biden's town hall hosted by -- biden was asked how americans can protect themselves without

access to assault weapons. >> if you want to protect yourself, get a double-barrel shotgun. i told my life, we live in an area that's wooded and somewhat shrewded. i said, jill, if there's ever a problem, just walk out on the balcony here, put that double barrel shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house. you don't need an ar-15. it's harder to aim, it's harder to use, and in fact, you don't need 30 rounds to protect yourself. buy a shotgun. buy a shotgun. >> you can't help by hear biden work through the 2016 implication on these gun issues, can you? tomorrow biden will hold in danburg. going back to this presidential leadership, where would the gun issue be, even the chance of getting universal background checks passed without the president putting his shoulder

behind the issue? folks, presidential leadership does matter on some issues, especially when you have media that wants to cover an issue, and the guns are one of those issues. >> well, washington is acting like the sky is falling over sequester. why is wall street not worried this time? they've been worried in the past during these crises. not now. in fact, henny penny would be raking in the big bucks. next we're bringing in the experts to find out why wall street is not afraid of these coming cuts. plus three years after the citizens' united game changer -- first a look ahead at today's politics planner. as you say, it's a ton of the president doing local tv. but check this out. patrick leahy perhaps holing a press in louisiana. jesse jackson jr. has his court

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hallmark of the long running budget fight. if you want to know how bad things really are in washington, watch wall street. for instance in summer of 2011, the dow dropped 450 points. the last minute deal was signed. the damage had been done. within a week the u.s. credit rating had been downgraded. later in 2011 the dow lost 316 points in the four days after the super committee failed to come up with a deal that would

have averted the sequester. but wall street seems to be getting use to the crises now. today despite the president's dire warnings about the sequester, the dow and s&p are at five-year house. nasdaq is at a 12 year high and the dow is essentially a trading day away from its all-time high set in 2007. what is going on here? joining me, steve leaseman, also the other half of steve. columnist for the "washington post." so guys, i'm a little perplexed here. becky, let me start with you. wall street, do they just not believe washington anymore. we're on our fifth one. have they discounted all of the hype over this next crisis? >> i think this one's actually a little bit different, chuck. we've been talking to a lot of strategyists and a lot of investors who actually say, a

lot of them, increasing number of them, that they think succession will happen and still positive on stocks. i'm scratching my head because particularly if you look at the defense stocks and consumer stocks, you think that there is going to be a crunch. when you get austerity, there are the repercussions that come with that. it surprises me to see the stock market looking at this and saying, whatever. >> steve, do you think that part of this is wall street just assumes washington will figure it out, that there is -- even if sequestration kicks in on march 1st, that they're smart enough to realize, oh, that's right, the government runs out of funding at the end of march, they're probably going to work out a deal. >> right. so if you bet armageddon, last two times, you essentially lost money. but at the end of the day, if you had your money on the short side of the market or weren't in the market, you lost money because as you said, washington

essentially flinched when it came to the abyss the last couple times. and i think there's a feeling here, and this sort of came off the elections, and certainly after the fiscal cliff debate that the republican side was not going to play this thing all the way out to the bitter end, that it had realized that that was not good for the party's image and so there's a sense that it won't go to the bitter end this time. >> i think wall street is okay when it comes to sequestration. i think the continuing resolution and shutdown of the government would be a whole different story. >> steve, am i being too cynical on how wall street is reacting right now? >> couple other things to consider, first of all when you're looking at the dow. these are big global companies. they get at least half of their revenue from overseas. so the u.s. stock market reflects something beyond the u.s. economy. the second thing tomorrow is

that the federal reserve is doing a lot to prop up the stock market, not directly, but by lowering interest rates they encourage everybody to take money out of things that media nothing and put it into risker investments like stocks, and it's working very well. >> hang on, let me get to pearlstein first on this. steve pearlstein, how long will it take for the economy to feel the impact, especially if they recover by the end of march? >> it's a slow-release pill, and as you all have said, we've seen this story so 34 times before, they'll figure out a way to patch it up down the road. in the meantime people on wall street are trading fairly short-term, so they'll worry about what happens next year, not today. the stock market isn't as forward-looking as it used to be because the time horizon of the

investors is so short-term. >> but steve, does wall street understand they could play a roll here, oddly enough, a constructive role by sending a message to washington? >> the market doesn't act that way. i think it's really interesting to go back to the fourth quarter gdp report which you remember was negative, but the market didn't panic. and what the market did was look through that number and saw that the private sector was doing pretty well. consumer spending was up. the reason it was negative was in part because of a decline in government spending. and i think the market saw that fourth quarter report and it's kind of like a visit from the ghost of the economic future, in the sense that that's what our economy is going to look like. and i think that the debate that steve pearlstein started there was what was the impact if we started to cut spending because

that is what i think wall street is being resigned to being our future. >> so becky, all of this stuff is priced in. >> i still don't think it's 100% priced in. we may get to the situation where wall street has accepted the sequester, but you have the continuing resolution right behind it and you have everything shoved down the line that's coming up this summer, and i think those are very real issues and i think wall street could react. i don't think the sequestration is going to do it. i don't think that wall street is necessarily going to look at the two, because wall street by the way looks at tax increases as a similar thing. it kind of takes money out of the economy too. so they're looking at this six in one, half dozen in another. >> go ahead. >> chuck, one more thing. you had a chart up there before. a move of 300 or 400 points, it sounds like a lot in the dow but it's really not anymore.

you've got to be talking about movements of 1,000 or 2,000 to get the kind of impact you're talking about. the 300 point will happen in a day because there's a lot of merger activity and everyone thinking -- >> very quickly. i want both stooeeves on this question. is government holding up economic growth, pure and simple? >> i would say in short-term, if the deficit problem isn't solved, then the long-term it will. but i don't think it's a big big factor right now. >> i think if you look at why it economy has been lackluster, if you put in all federal and state and local spending cuts compared to others on the backing of recoveries, government spending has kept the economy on the downside. we had one year of big spending from the stimulus, and the other years were contracted. so yeah, government is holding back the economy.

we're hoping to do 2% growth in the economy. >> interesting disagreement from the steves. becky, you should continue this debate on your fine air. thanks to all the steves plus becky. it's a good day for "the daily rundown." up next, will kerry try to make another comeback? plus we warned you, the virginia governors race. this is going to be potentially the biggest story of 2013 in politics. but first, how many republican members of congress were born in puerto rico. first person to tweet the answer to chuck todd at "the daily rundown." humans. even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why at liberty mutual insurance,

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governor race. the supreme court agrees to here what could be another landmark case on campaign money. but first live pictures from moments ago. former congressman jesse jackson jr. arriving at court. he is charged a spending over $750,000 in campaign funds to buy himself luxury items. he faces up to five years in prison and his wife up to three. sentencing is not expected though, for several weeks. supreme court has agreed to hear a case challenging how much money donors can give to federal campaigns and committees. mccutcheon wanted to give $75,000 to committees and a little over $54,000 to candidates but was barred by the

federal aggregate limits. he is challenging under the first amendment saying the amendment is unsupported by any cognizable government interest. the supreme court will hear the case in october. but folks, don't be surprised if the supreme court then looks at limits, federal limits to candidates themselves and says in this world, do they just raise those and unlimited money goes to the actual candidates as well. a little breaking poll news out of virginia. locked in a dead heat. each are at 28% in the one-on-one match-up. horrify if the republican golfer -- poll those mccalliff. mistakes he hadn't even gotten in yet. he starts at 13. the media attention he would

get, this could be a real three-way race. democrats shouldn't be thinking this is just a simple, oh, great republicans split the vote. easy one for the democrats. not so fast there. and in new jersey, voters overwhelming approve of the job chris christie is doing. the governor approval rating sits at 74%. highest for any new jersey governor. 71% think he deserves to be re-elected this year. senator bob kerry says he has no plans to run for the seat to johanns will vacate. and he said he intends to remain a private citizen after losing to deb fischer in last year's race. up next, why the grand old party is in danger of extinction. a new look at the growing republican rift. forget establishment versus tea

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. the republican rift increasingly looks like a series of cracks threatening to splinter the party rather than simply cutting it in two. today deep dive into another split that's hit the air waves. mitt romney's loss told a depressing tell to republicans. 60 to 37, second election in a row. the gop elect rat is showing its age. from the 90s to present, they tracked pretty closely to the number of under 30. these changed dramatically. last year republicans won 47% of the vote with just 37% of young voters, a 10 point gap. why?

new york magazine talked to a number of you know voters who conducted focus groups with men and women in their 20s. the findings were virtually unanimous. no one could understand the gop's opposition to gay marriage or for invading foreign countries. every focus group described democrats at open minded and republicans as rigid. there is a brand, she concluded, and that it's that we're not in the 21st century. he attempt to down play that impact. >> sometimes they have better technology. some cases we have better technology. we don't have 140 character problem in the republican party. we have a larger problem that we have to look at and be patient about it. >> but not everyone agrees a 24-year-old social media

consultant who helped propel senator ted cruz to a win, says that the technology gap go hand-in-hand. the old guard made the judgment with the obama digital operation. started with howard dean. there's been a concerted effort among the establishment, gop folks to figure this out. so how does the gop party get younger. s.e. cupp is co-host here on cnbc. her co-host is john goodman, and like a typical political couple, one is in washington and one is in new york. >> can't figure is out. >> i thought i'd do my best, do you want to say hi to each other? >> hi. hi, honey. >> john, explain when you saw the focus group findings of kristen's poll. they've been on this issue for a while of modernizing the party.

is it all on social issues? >> it's not all on social issues. in fact, i don't think it's all on policy. i think a lot of our downfalls come in messaging and how we sell our policies to young folks. i think you had a lot folks in the last election coming out of college still in their 20s worship inclined to vote for republican candidates because of the unemployment, but i think we need to learn how to sell our policies better because they do help people. >> who is, when you look at -- who are uninfluential, s.e., influential young folks that are carrying a conservative message that could make folks under 30 listen? >> that's been our project, to identify those young conservative thought leaders who understand that we need a new way forward. and it's not about a purity. it's not about judging our candidates and our young thought leaders and our voices on a

sliding horizontal scale of conservativeness. it's about a vertical of effectiveness. are they good messenger? are they articulate? are they compelling? these are the kind of folks we've been trying to bring in to go in and spread the word of conservative policies using good messaging, the kind of that john's talking about. >> john, the republicans became a force in early 70s, and they became leaders in the republican parties in the 0s and 90s and it sort of propelled there. is seems if on the college campuses, college democrats are light years ahead of college republicans and that leads tote problems you have now. >> sure. i think that the college republicans are there and they

are great influential aggressors. but i think it's become uncool to be a republican in colleges. i think that's unfair. i think the culture says, you know what, i'm a >> it's not just dropping these signifiers and cool references into conversation and franklin stewart stevens isn't totally wrong. it's not just about twitter although it is about some of our digital

we should disagree on policy,

and when it comes to bad messaging, we shouldn't feel intimidated from calling out bad messengers, whether todd achen on the radio. >> john, who gets it right now? >> sure. not to plug a little bit here, but my former boss, raul labrador, his messaging is great. he appeals to people on a human level. he knows that the policies he's writing on the hill and talking about are feeffecting people. another one i'm excited about is lieutenant golfer candidate pete snyder who i think is a young entrepreneur, he's conservative but he talks about the things appealing to people, creating jobs and helping the economy. >> it's interesting to hear you both say it's not about changing positions on social issues but

it sounds like you're both saying it's de-emphasizing them. >> look, this is a perfect example. i'm pro-life, john is pro-choice. there is a way to have that conversation and appeal to a wide array of people from a conservative point of view without making our glaring difference on it a point of contention. and i think if -- >> tell that to a primary -- tell that to an interest group who wants to spend money in a primary. >> that's true, and john has some great ideas on how to condition for those primary fights. >> john, very quickly on this, and i'm going to have to let this couple go. >> sure. i think one of the points we have to make is that in the primary, what we need to do is bring more voters in the primary and again, condition that environment so a wider base of people feel comfortable calling themselves republicans, registering as republicans to participate this those primaries to choose the candidates to move on to the general.

>> exactly. >> all right. the young power couple. typical, one in washington and one in new york. >> we're trying. >> thank you both. john goodwin. nancy, see you at 3:00. you came with your marketing. >> our gaggle is here to talk about the sequester square, and why the phrase working it out is taking on new meaning in capitol hill. but first washington soup of the day is chicken noodle. so boring. lazy. jumping in with lazy. don't forget to check out the website. run down on msnbc. we'll be right back. two. three. my credit card rewards are easy to remember with the bankamericard cash rewards credit card. earn 1% cash back everywhere, every time. [ both ] 2% back on groceries. [ all ] 3% on gas. no hoops to jump through. i earn more cash back on the things i buy the most. [ woman ] it's as easy as... one!

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some years, months ago, i said that i hoped that every american would serve his country. today colonel glenn served his, and we all express our thanks to him. >> daily flashback to 1962 when

a young astronaut circled the grope three times. he ended up with a good political career too. in a little over a week, the first round of sequestration cuts will begin taking effect in what has become another version of chicken little. president obama using the bully pulpit to call out congress in an event with first responders tuesday. >> we've got a few days. congress with do the right thing. we can avert just one more washington manufactured problem that slows our recovery. >> let's bring in our wednesday google. from the new york times, and anchor of once inside city haul,

eric lewis. you guys watch washington from here. we are on our fifth budget crisis since republicans took control of the house. at what point does the public stop listening in washington? my sense says, boy, i just think it public is saying, you guys keep crying wolf, whatever reference, it's over and over again. >> you're right. people have tuned out. i think those that have worked for the federal government -- >> they're the pawns in this. >> they're paying attention about which agencies, so if you're middle management and up in the federal government, this is on your radar screen, but as your guests point out a few minutes, the dows are at highs. these are very broad economic indicators, and it indicates that people, if they're voting with their dollars or their brain share, they're paying more attention to the academy awards and wall street. >> and nancy, i'm cynical to

this because i've what's been marked the two deadlines coming up in march. you sort of see how they fix this. >> this is now regular order. serial crises. but i do think people are going to start paying attention because we're in theater mowed. next friday i expect to see cabinet officer us walking out of buildings with boxes and the typing pool behind them, and it will be long lines. >> typing pool? if the federal government saw its typing pools, you could make a case maybe we do need to cut -- the typing pools i think can go. >> i do think that people also realize that this is costing them money as taxpayers. the debt ceiling cost them $1.3 billion in borrowing costs. it cost money to plan for the contingencies they're started to plan for.

>> nick, does what happens in washington give you more confidence in the economy or less confidence, and it's not surprising, a lot less confidence. >> one problem here i think is an accountability problem. i'm not sure people know who to blame for what, on what's happening right now. it is so convoluted. if you ask on your poll how many people can say what the sequester is, i would be surprised if it was a high number. so all this blame gaming is theater. but the problem is people don't know what exactly is being played. who wins, who loses. all they know is there's some kind of grade lock. this big bad thing is going to happen and it hurts them. >> we're getting word from the pentagon and they're putting out the threat of furloughs. leon panetta's still secretary of defense until they decide whether or not to confirm chuck hagel.

charleston, military town, very much supported by the military. this could be where it stings, but what penalty do republicans -- you're a republican member of congress, what penalty is there to bay? >> apparently some of the big budget cutters who are republicans have started to quietly approach some of the cabinet secretaries. can you exempt my little project, my road rebuilding project from what's about to happen. and i think that's actually the leverage that is most effective for the president. look, the town halls and the tour, it's going to be important in those particular markets to put pressure on particular members of congress but in a million other districts that are going to be people who are going to start to see projects go by the wayside and these folks got an eye on the calendar. 2014 is not that far away and they don't want to explain about the project. >> where are government projects good politics anymore? >> if half the sequestration cuts are to the defense budget,

then there are a lot of districts where that is a serious problem. >> which is the reason they threw it in. that was supposed to push -- particularly eric cantor and kevin mccarthy, two states that have a big chunk of federal government dependents. >> that's true. earmarks were like the thing that kept legislation going all the time. >> it's what kept congress functional. >> spending is bad. it hurts deal making is the thing. >> when we come back, speaking of spending, i want to get into, nick, what you love to report on, campaign finance. trivia time. we asked how many republican members of congress were born in puerto rico. the answer, it was like jeopardy. it's idaho republican robert only one born in puerto rico. msnbc.com. we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] imagine skin so healthy, it never gets dry again.

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let's bring back nick confessorre, the supreme court says they are going to take up this challenge to the federal overall donor limits on contributing to candidates and committees. a little bit complicated but over a two-year period, no individual can give more than i want to say like -- >> 117 -- >> 110,000 to individual candidates of any strive and no more than an additional $60,000. >> to global -- >> global cap on your donation. we know that this roberts court doesn't believe in -- whenever there's a limit, they believe in getting rid of it in some form or another. can they say the individual limit, the $2600 that is

somebody's limit to contributing to a candidate, that that's wiped away? >> if they went that far, it would be huge. if they struck down all limits. it's possible they could take the excuse of these global caps and say, you know what, let's get rid of all of the limits and caps and you can do any amount you want. in citizens united, they basically upheld the idea that for an elected official to solicit and get unlimited amounts of money, has a risk of corruption. they upheld that one idea, that -- >> nancy, when you look at how super pacs are used like an individual candidate, what they said they are trying to stop, the idea that an individual candidate, you've got to have limits for corruption. if they start their own super pac which they do, lindsay graham is starting one. it undermines that premise. >> this is why the most

interesting stories this week are reviews of how they spent the money and whether they got their money's worth. the actual elements on campaign spending may be coming from market forces and whether it's a good return on investment rather than from anything that the courts are doing. >>errol i would make the argument that a federal candidate is now -- they are harmed by the super pac aspect of things. we have a special election that michael bloomberg controls. >> that's right. the fact that the messaging was so hard on the presidential level, i think shows the efficacy is not that great and not as promised. it's worth noting that this might ironically end up -- the rise of the super pacs, keep the original limits in place because the court might decide, these don't have a problem. >> tonight we'll talk with jose antonio vargas, winning journalist who went public in "time" with the fact he's an illegal immigrant. >> if you are sick of the

sequester, look for "time's" new issue of style and design with tina fey on the cover. >> if you are a true road map of the immigration debate, ashley parker's profile of the friendship between jeff flake and john mccain is a must read. >> apparently they work out together. i'll see you back in washington tomorrow. taking a deep dive into the chinese hacking story coming up next up next, chris jansing, good-bye. push-ups or sprints? what's wrong with fetch? or chase? let's do this larry! ooh, i got it, i got it! (narrator) the calorie-smart nutrition in beneful healthy weight... includes grains and real chicken, because a healthy dog is a playful dog. beneful healthy weight. find us on facebook to help put more play in your day.

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